Keystone Oaks: Two of three elementaries to close?
Share with others:
The Keystone Oaks school board may close two of its three elementary schools because of dwindling enrollments.
At its finance and facilities committee meeting last week, school board members said closing Fred L. Aiken Elementary in Green Tree and Myrtle Elementary in Castle Shannon are options as the district struggles to hold the line on property taxes.
The district estimates it will lose about 200 students in the next decade.
Officials also said all five of the district's buildings need upgrades at a total estimated price of "several million" dollars.
Board President Marian Randazzo said Aiken was the most underutilized of the district's three elementary schools and that Myrtle was the oldest. The third school is Dormont Elementary.
Superintendent William Urbanek said that under one proposal the district was considering, all students in kindergarten through grade three would attend Dormont. Students in grade four through six would attend what is now the districts middle school, and students in grades seven through 12 would share the high school building.
Officials said under this scenario the students in grades seven and eight would be kept separated from those in the higher grades.
But many of the parents in attendance March 25 were vehemently opposed to the plan.
Green Tree resident Janet Domalik told the board it was obligated to listen to its constituents and asked those in the crowd to stand if they support keeping the elementary schools in the communities. A vast majority of the crowd stood.
Her husband, Dan, said status quo in the district is fine.
"We need to do nothing," he said. "We don't expect [board members] to be experts, but we want them to make informed decisions. We don't want you voting without all the facts."
First Published April 1, 2010 5:53 am
